This invention relates to law enforcement restraining devices and more particularly to a disposable, double-loop restraining device formed from a single, elongated, flat strap of plastic which is removed from the person or animal being restrained by cutting the strap off or snipping it off.
The conventional restraining device used by law enforcement officers and others consists of a pair of connected metal rings that can be locked about the wrists of a prisoner to keep him from using his hands or to fasten him to the law enforcement officer or some other object such as a fence or a post or attachment to an anchoring member in a transport vehicle. These conventional handcuffs require a key, are bulky and the oval opening defined, though adjustable in length, is typically not adjustable in width for different thicknesses of wrists or ankles. In addition, when multiple arrests are involved multiple sets of handcuffs may be required which burden the officers with carrying a plurality of rather difficult to handle and heavy metallic objects. In addition, in law enforcement work which requires handling of individuals for transporting and transferring from one facility to another, processing, bookings, etc., the prisoners are normally turned over from one officer or agency to another requiring one set of hand-cuffs to be removed and given back to the first officer (who is transferring the prisoner to a second officer) and for the application of a different set of hand-cuffs provided by the transferee. Any change, or removal and replacement of the restraining devices on a prisoner is dangerous and provides an avenue of opportunity for the prisoner to injure an officer or escape while such transporting transfers are being made.
Moreover, since a key is necessary to remove conventional handcuffs, the transporting or arresting officer may be assaulted in attempts to obtain the key. In other words, the use of the conventional, expensive, key-opened handcuffs as restraining devices provide a plurality of problems and risks when they are both applied and removed from the party or parties to be restrained thereby.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,023 addresses some of the aforesaid problems of conventional, key-operated, heavy, expensive handcuffs. A four-legged-shaped restraining device is provided which is molded from a material such as a resinous plastic and has four leg portions extending outwardly in three different directions. One of the problems with this particular device is its complex four-legged shape in which the respective socket bore each parallel with a respective leg is located at the end of a leg so that the two socket bores are oriented perpendicular to each other. It is difficult to insert a flexible leg into a socket bore at the end of another flexible leg. Moreover, this four-legged structure results in an awkward closed position in which the ends inserted in the bores project out at different angles making the device difficult to operate and to use. This four-legged arrangement is bulky and difficult to store and use.